Peer-to-peer energy breakthrough could allow solar and wind energy sources to be shared across entire communities during grid down blackouts

(Natural News) Some people who have solar panels on their roof are under the impression that they can use them to power their home in the case of an outage, but that simply is not the case. Homes do remain connected to the grid during outages, but the devices tasked with managing solar panels are normally turned off due to safety concerns. This permanent grid connection essentially prevents homeowners from drawing on the power that their own renewable energy resources generate.

This could be about to change, however, thanks to the efforts of a team of University of California San Diego engineers who have come up with algorithms that would enable homes to share and use their power in outages by disconnecting solar inverters from the grid. Their algorithms work with the existing technology and would have the added benefit of boosting the system’s reliability by as much as 35 percent.

The genius of their work lies in the ability of the algorithm to prioritize the distribution of power from the renewable resources in outages. Their equation considers forecasts for wind and solar power generation and the available energy storage, including batteries and electric vehicles. It combines this information with the projected energy usage of residents and the amount of energy the homes are able to produce. It can be programmed to prioritize in several different ways, the most vital of which is by favoring those who need power urgently, such as those using life support equipment. It could also prioritize those who are willing to pay extra or reward those who typically generate an energy surplus during normal operations.

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Learning lessons from past outages

Lead author Abdulelah H. Habib said the engineers were inspired to find a way to use the renewable power in outages by the events of Hurricane Sandy. This storm affected more than eight million people on the nation’s East Coast, some of whom were left without power for as long as two weeks.

According to the researchers, most customers prefer sharing community-scale storage systems over having systems in each home because of the lower costs. One of the paper’s senior authors, Raymond de Callafon, said that homes that are connected together are not only more resilient in power outages but they also happen to be more resilient to price fluctuations.

Each home needs to be equipped with special circuit breakers that can be remotely controlled, while utilities would need to install some communications methods so the power systems within a particular residential cluster can communicate amongst themselves. They also need a “grid forming inverter” to help them connect to one another.

One stumbling block that will have to be overcome is the current regulations. Most states do not allow individual homeowners to sell power to other homeowners, so there would have to be some adjustments to make this a reality.

Solar power growing in popularity

Solar power’s popularity is currently on the rise, and reductions in cost as the technology improves are only expected to drive this growth even further. REC CEO Steve O’Neil told CNBC that the installation rates of solar double every two years, even though just two percent of the planet’s electricity comes from converting sunlight to energy. This means there is plenty of room for expansion. The world’s current solar capacity is 305 gigawatts, compared to just 50 gigawatts in 2010.

In addition, he pointed out that the price of solar energy has dropped by 70 percent since the year 2010 and continues to fall; it costs around eight cents per kilowatt hour at the moment. Another factor that could boost adoption is storage improvements, which will allow solar energy to be used even on overcast days.

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Klesse S, Etzold S, Frank D (2016) Integrating tree-ring and inventory-based measurements of aboveground biomass growth: research opportunities and carbon cycle consequences from a large snow breakage event in the Swiss Alps. European Journal of Forest Research, 135 (2): 297-311. [10.1007/s10342-015-0936-5]

Dendrochronology, Aboveground biomass increment, Interannual variability, Drought, Disturbance

The temporal variability of the forest sink is associated with high uncertainties in both its magnitude and the driving ecological and climatic processes. In this study, we assess the inter-annual variability (IAV) of carbon uptake using annually resolved aboveground biomass increment (ABI) estimates from 272 pseudorandomly sampled trees at a long-term monitoring plot in the dry valley of the Valais in Switzerland. Over the 1950–2011 period, the mean ABI is 86.8 g C m-2 year-1 with an IAV of ±31 %. The IAV is largely driven by hydrological conditions throughout the water year from previous August to current August (r SPEI = 0.56; 1st differenced r = 0.75, p < 0.001). During extremely dry years (such as 1972, 1976, 1998, and 2011), the carbon accumulation was reduced up to 63 % from the long-term mean. Furthermore, our analysis explores possible biases of annual ABI derived from manual band dendrometers in permanent plot inventories caused by water status related changes in tree size. During the snow breakage event in March 2012 and subsequent management activities, 17 % of the standing biomass was killed. We estimate that the remaining trees will take ~16 years to make up for the loss of this disturbance, assuming a similar growth rate of the remaining trees as during the previous 60 years and that a potentially drier climate and the increased water availability for the remaining trees will balance each other. We demonstrate that well-replicated, representative tree-ring datasets have a huge potential to complement shorter-term and lower-resolution forest inventory monitoring data. Integrating tree-ring and plot data allow one to gain knowledge about annual changes in forest productivity even before monitoring started and help ecosystem managers to better adapt their strategies.

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id: 05645073 dt: j an: 2009f.00297 au: Pugalee, David K.; Hartman, Kimberly J.; Forrester, Jennifer H. ti: Performance of middle grade students on quantitative tasks: A beginning dialogue on quantitative literacy in middle schools. so: Investig. Math. Learn. 1, No. 2, 35-51 (2008). py: 2008 pu: Research Council on Mathematics Learning (RCML), Memphis, TN; Taylor \& Francis (Routledge), Philadelphia, PA la: EN cc: D33 D63 K43 F93 ut: research; understanding quantitative information; exploratory data analysis; descriptive statistics; mathematical literacy; goals of mathematics education; numeracy; skills; educational diagnosis; ability; lower secondary; reading graphical representations; understanding models; estimating rates of growth ci: li: ab: Summary: Quantitative literacy involves a set of skills necessary to reason about data. Such skills are imperative in our increasingly data-oriented world. Despite the importance of such skills, assessment of quantitative literacy has not been a focus in education and there is a lack of assessment tools that specifically address these skills. This study sought to describe the current levels of middle grade students\rq quantitative literacy skills through an assessment contextualized with data from the 2000 United States Census. Over 700 middle school students in grades 6, 7, and 8 completed the assessment with a mean score of 41 \% correct. rv:


Johnny Romeo ‘To The Extreme’ Mosman Exhibition 2019

Internationally acclaimed Australian Pop painter Johnny Romeo makes his triumphant return to Sydney with his electrifying new series TO THE EXTREME. Following on from his celebrated and sold-out 2018 Sydney show The Last Days of Disco, Australia’s leading culture jammer and Pop artist delivers an exhilarating collection of new original works that pushes the Pop envelope and celebrates the visionary spirit of those who dare to dream and stand out from the pack. The series is a gloriously playful sugar rush through Romeo’s warped Pop visions of the modern world that sees Australia’s King of Pop deliver his most confident and unapologetically Pop works to date.

Drawing its title from Vanilla Ice’s 1989 debut album of the same name, TO THE EXTREME ramps up everything that we have come to expect from Romeo’s inimitable Kitsch Pop style and pushes it to the next level. Colours leap from the canvass with the visual impact of a sun-kissed sucker punch, as the artist masterfully plunders and re-appropriates iconic imagery from Pop culture and art history to create dazzling works that speak to the absurdity of our contemporary experience. Romeo takes his penchant for witty irreverence and tongue-in-cheek humour to joyously absurd peaks, as he creates a no-holds barred Technicolour block party where eccentric artistic geniuses, jazz songbirds and rockstar felines prance and prowl through the dance floor of Pop culture.

For Johnny Romeo, ‘to the extreme’ is a powerful statement of intent, a maxim of radical self-confidence where visionaries and risk-takers push themselves to the limit to make their dreams a reality. There is an irrepressible sense of hopefulness and optimism that courses throughout each of the works in the series, and in particular through the artist’s cheeky depiction of animals. TO THE EXTREME hosts a veritable menagerie of bombastic beasts who have all risen above their limitations to embrace their true callings. In Romeo’s delightfully warped Kitsch Pop world, friendly guard dogs are hilariously transformed into rap moguls, humble rodents become hip-hoppin’ superheroes, and apes take on the outrageous personas of hedonistic Las Vegas party animals.

The thrilling and life-affirming confidence that lies at the conceptual core of TO THE EXTREME is reflected with immense gusto through the series’ slick graphic imagery and powerful use of colour. Each work drips with undeniable swagger, as concentrated bursts of Technicolour hues inject a vibrant liveliness to Romeo’s Kitsch Pop visions that perfectly distills the larger-than-life ambition and relentless drive of dreamers charging through life at full steam. Bursting with taut, refined line-work, Romeo’s Kitsch Pop renditions of Pop culture icons and celebrity creatures dominate his canvasses with a magnetic presence that showcase the artist at his most commanding and defiantly Pop.

Living life to the extreme often means embracing the absurdities of life head on, a sentiment which Johnny Romeo captures with a gleefully anarchic sense of humour in his latest series. Renowned for his razor sharp wit and knack for clever wordplay, Romeo satirises the chaos of modern life through skilfully weaving together seemingly disparate Pop culture and art history references, ranging from Baroque art and silent films to hip hop, goth and the urban organic food movement. The frenetic interplay between imagery and text reflects the immense influence of music on the artist’s work, and recalls both the improvisational looseness of free jazz and the slick, rhythmic punchiness of hip hop.

A thrilling homage to the world’s dreamers and daredevils, the latest series from Australia’s King of Pop takes his signature blend of vibrant colour arrangements, Absurdist humour and slick Pop imagery to breathtaking new heights as he pushes his inimitable Kitsch Pop style to the extreme. In the booming, neon-drenched Pop block party that is Johnny Romeo’s TO THE EXTREME, everyone is free to be themselves and anything goes.

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Johnny Romeo

Johnny Romeo is an internationally acclaimed Australian painter. Considered Australia’s leading Pop artist, Romeo is spearheading the global Neo-Expressionist Pop movement with his electrifying collision of rock’n’roll swagger, comic book … read more →


Heattweet: Exploring the link between weather and aggression on social media

Recently, meteorological conditions (e.g., temperature) have been linked to expressed sentiment on social media (Baylis et al., 2018). In this project we focus on the influence of meteorological conditions on expressions of interpersonal and intergroup aggression in social media messages, and on a possible explanatory mechanism, i.e. strength of future orientation. Given the importance of social media in interpersonal and intergroup communication nowadays, expressions of aggression in social media messages may threaten societies’ interconnectedness and inclusiveness.
According to the model for CLimate, Aggression, and Self-control (CLASH; Van Lange, Rinderu, & Bushman, 2017), higher temperatures may increase aggression because they result in a weaker future orientation, which is linked to lower levels of self-control (e.g., Baumeister et al., 1994). However, some psychological experiments suggest that higher temperatures may actually inhibit aggression and promote prosocial behavior by enhancing relational mindsets (e.g., IJzerman & Semin, 2009) and affiliative motivation (e.g., Fay & Maner, 2012). To make things even more complicated, other resarch suggests a curvilinear relationship between temperature and aggression (Van de Vliert et al., 1999).
In the current project, we will explore the link between the daily temperature and other meteorological conditions in the Netherlands (data obtained from KNMI), and expressions of interpersonal and intergroup aggression extracted from social media data (provided by Coosto). Proxies for aggression include terms of abuse (i.e., swear words), and words specifically related to, e.g., racist discourse (e.g., Tulkens, 2016), hate speech, and cyberbullying (e.g., Del Vigna et al., 2017). In addition to existing word lists, dictionaries will be composed semi-automatically, using wordnet propagation, corpus comparison, and pattern extraction (Baccianella et al., 2010, Maks et al., 2014). Degree of future orientation will be assessed by detecting use of temporal references (e.g.,
tomorrow, next week; see Basic et al., 2018), and subsequently tested as explanatory mechanism.


Impactful. Intriguing. Innovative. Few musicians inspire such a variety of positive adjectives. As a nonprofit leader by day and hip-hop MC by night, Ahmen is known as the “Batman of Social Impact.” Ahmen is the rare leader who is both a social and cultural entrepreneur. He unifies changemaking initiatives with artistic efforts that galvanize the masses. It’s a unique formula that can – and has – lead to true change for our greatest social issues.

Ahmen’s #Troublemaker music and message to disrupt the system is inspiring audiences around the world, as evidenced by appearances at major events such as IFC 2017, NYU Social Innovation Summit 2017, New Frontiers 2016, Frank 2016, Embark 2015, and INBOUND 2015. As a result, Ahmen has been identified as a “Rising Star” by New York Nonprofit Media, who named Ahmen one of their 2015 “40 Under 40” and a “Next Generation Leader” by the Human Services Council.

In the greatest spirit of hip-hop and leadership, Ahmen is an avid opponent of the status quo. He breaks boundaries as a performer, activist, and speaker for the sole purpose of stirring things up while catalyzing voices and positive action among everyday people. Most important, Ahmen has achieved unprecedented levels of success in his endeavors, from releasing his groundbreaking music on ESPN and HipHopDX to partnering with some of the world’s top companies. Ahmen is truly a highly effective modern rebel with a cause.

The ultra octane activist’s inspiring portfolio includes fostering reduced gun violence by 90% in Far Rockaway, New York (once one of NY’s most dangerous communities), helping over 1,300 low-income children every year meet or exceed developmental standards, and launching fatherhood and juvenile justice reformprograms that have spread throughout all of New York City.

Far from a single-issue activist, Ahmen has addressed a plethora of today’s most pressing and relevant issues, including the reality of the social impact world, the discovery of empathy during increasingly divided times, and the power of service to collectively advance our nation. He is also considered an expert on the role of innovation and collaboration within the fields of justice reform, early childhood education, violence prevention, mental health, and youth development.

In a recent talk, Ahmen shared how his roots as the child of 1st generation immigrants from Sri Lanka have greatly impacted both his music and his message: “I don’t believe my parents went through that struggle so I could be another 9 to 5er. They didn’t leave their homeland and families so I could blend in. They didn’t defy the odds by my dad becoming a US Diplomat and my mom becoming an internationally recognized teacher so I could simply cash a paycheck. I believe their decision to come to America obligates me to expand opportunity in every moment. It requires me to act with urgency and courage so others, like my parents, can discover paths to brighter futures.”

Not the typical antagonist, Ahmen’s insights come from a genuinely likeable place. People are drawn to his thoughts and the beats which accompany them. Proof positive is Ahmen’s “Our Time,” a song that represents his ability to tackle the difficult issues of racial and social conflict in modern America while also providing a renewed sense of hope, conviction, and purpose – all done through a supersonic fusion of hip-hop lyrics, delivery, and soundtracks. “Our Time” is the first release from Ahmen’s highly acclaimed album, If Not Now Then When.


Cancer is a life changing diagnosis. There is no one way to deal with the aftermath of a diagnosis and come to terms with what you went through and what it means to be a survivor.

In survivorship, there are still many mental obstacles one has to work through such as “Chemo Brain,” a mental fog that impacts one’s ability to function as they once did. Some patients will also experience PTSD from diagnosis and the healing journey they choose.

As if the mental effects were not enough, the physical stresses of cancer make day-to-day living and interactions more difficult, but with the power of Vitalship’s team supporting you throughout your journey after cancer, we’re sure you’ll be able to live a full and healthy life.

So, what is survivorship?

Firstly, having no signs of cancer after finishing treatment, or living with, through, and beyond cancer. According to this definition, cancer survivorship begins at diagnosis and includes people who continue to have treatment over the long term, to either reduce the risk of recurrence or to manage chronic disease. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology there are three kinds of survivorship:

Let's Begin Your Healthcare Journey...

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CNET también está disponible en español. Don't show this again. It takes the StumbleUpon experience mobile, letting you can discover and rate random Web pages recommended to you by others. It works by getting you, the stumbler, to click on a 'stumble' button that takes you to a random page which you can rate with thumbs up or thumbs down buttons. It's not totally random though, as you're led to more websites that have got the thumbs up than down, and you can adjust settings to stumble on to categories of sites you have more interest in.

The line officially starts forming Saturday at 9 p.m., and Nintendo World opens and starts selling the DS Lite at the stroke of midnight, Considering the large nerd population of New York, if you're not reading this from a sleeping bag parked in front of Nintendo World right now, you might have a problem getting your own DS Lite from Nintendo's store, Thankfully, the portable starts selling nationwide this Sunday, so if you're willing to wait pink flamingo watercolor iphone case another eight hours, you might be able to pick up one of your very own from your local electronics store..

"Your future cars will be the most advanced computers in the world," Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia, told a crowd of hundreds at his company's CES presentation, as he offered new ways his company would power automated driving and digital dashboard displays. In the medical world, Qualcomm last week unveiled partnerships with drugstore chain Walgreens and drug maker Novartis, as it seeks to use its wireless technology to enable remote patient monitoring and speed up data collection in medical trials. Qualcomm hopes these technologies can help reduce health care costs while also offering more convenient service for patients, Aberle said.

Beautiful and bold..with complications, The new no-compromise MacBook, A stellar on-ear headphone, Crave-worthy pink flamingo watercolor iphone case curves for a premium price, The Good The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini has the same rubberised design as its full-size brother, it's waterproof, with a vivid screen and decent camera, The Bad Like all of Samsung's previous smaller flagships, the S5 Mini seriously waters down the specs of the top-end phone, meaning it's just a mid-range phone with a flagship name and high price, The plastic design feels far less luxurious than the metal HTC One Mini 2 and the fingerprint sensor rarely works as it should..

He then went to work at the Washington, D.C., law practice of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. When President George H.W. Bush was elected in 1988, Cicconi left the private sector to return to the White House for two more years, this time as deputy chief of staff. He went back to his law firm as a partner and worked with AT&T. In 1998, Cicconi went to work for AT&T as the executive vice president of law and government affairs. A few months later he was named general counsel. The early years that Cicconi spent with AT&T were mainly dealing with fallout from the breakup of the monopoly Bell phone system in 1984 and the subsequent 1996 Telecommunications Act, which was supposed to force competition into the market.

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Zora Neale Hurston, Genius of the Harlem Renaissance

Carl Van Vechten, Wikimedia // Public Domain
Carl Van Vechten, Wikimedia // Public Domain

Twentieth century African-American author Zora Neale Hurston is best known for her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. But her perseverance and love of her culture made for a much richer life than many people know.

Near the turn of the century, Hurston was born the spirited daughter of former slaves. Her parents had gone on to become a schoolteacher and a Baptist preacher. Her father's sermons were likely what sparked the girl's fascination with storytelling, which she'd later use not only in her works, but also in the construction of her public persona.

Over the course of her life, Hurston offered contradictory dates of birth. And in her 1942 autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road, she inaccurately claimed Eatonville, Florida, as her birthplace, when in truth she was born in Notasulga, Alabama, probably on January 7, 1891. But Eatonville was her home from about age 3 to 13, and a major influence on her work. One of the first places in the United States to be incorporated as an all-black town, it was also home to a vibrant and proud African-American community that protected the young Hurston from the cruel racial prejudices found elsewhere in the United States. Years later, Hurston would cherish this place and the self-confidence it instilled in her works. She once described it as "A city of five lakes, three croquet courts, three hundred brown skins, three hundred good swimmers, plenty guavas, two schools and no jailhouse."

Despite a seemingly ideal hometown, Hurston knew hardship. At 13, she lost her mother, and was booted out of boarding school when her father and new step-mom failed to foot the tuition bill. Down but not out, Hurston found work as a maid, serving an actress in a traveling theatrical company that gave her a taste of the world beyond Florida. In Baltimore, she lopped a decade off her age (a subtraction she maintained the rest of her days) to qualify for free public schooling that would allow her to complete her long-delayed high school education. From there, she worked her way through college, studied anthropology and folklore, and had her earliest works published in her school's paper. By 1920, the 29-year-old earned an associate degree from Howard University in Washington D.C. Five years later, she made the fateful move to New York City, where she eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Barnard College after studying with the pioneering anthropologist Franz Boas. There, she also became a seminal and controversial icon of the Harlem Renaissance.

It's said that Hurston—with her brazen wit, affable humor, and charm—waltzed into the Harlem scene, easily befriending actress Ethel Waters, and poets Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen. Professor and fellow folklorist Sterling Brown once remarked of her appeal, "When Zora was there, she was the party."

Electrified by the thriving literary movement that strove to define the contemporary African-American experience, Hurston penned the personal essay "How It Feels To Be Colored Me," where she boldly declared

She and Hughes teamed up in 1930 to create a play for African-American actors that wouldn't use racial stereotypes. Regrettably, creative differences led to a falling out between the two that sunk The Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life In Three Acts before the Eatonville-set fable managed to be produced. But Hurston rebounded with her musical The Great Day, which premiered on Broadway January 10, 1932. Next, came her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, in 1934. The following year saw the release of a meticulously curated collection of African American oral folklore. Mules and Men became the greatest success she'd see in her lifetime, and yet it earned Hurston only $943.75.

Her next book, 1937’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, was written during her anthropological expedition to Haiti to study voodoo. Reflecting its divorced author's life, it followed a forty-something African American woman's journey through three marriages and self-acceptance. While the mainstream press praised Hurston's anthropological eye and her writing "with her head as with her heart," she faced a backlash from some of her Harlem Renaissance peers.

Zora Neale Hurston drumming, 1937
Zora Neale Hurston drumming, 1937.
Library of Congress, Public Domain // Wikimedia Commons

As the movement evolved, Harlem Renaissance writers had been debating how African-Americans should present their people and culture in their art. Should they devotedly fight against the negative stereotypes long established by Caucasian writers? Should their work be penned as progressive propaganda intended to expose the racism of modern America as a means to provoke change? Or should African-Americans create without the constraints of a political or creative ideology? Hurston sided with the last group, and saw her novel criticized for its embrace of the vernacular of the black South, its exploration of female sexuality, and its absence of an overt political agenda. Literary critic Ralph Ellison called Their Eyes Were Watching God a "blight of calculated burlesque," while essayist Richard Wright jeered, "Miss Hurston seems to have no desire whatsoever to move in the direction of serious fiction." But fiction wasn't all she wrote.

In 1938, Hurston published the anthropological study Tell My Horse; her aforementioned autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, came six years later. But following the release of her final novel Seraph on the Suwanee, Hurston's career fell into decline. Through the 1950s, she occasionally managed to secure some work as a journalist, scraping by with stints as a substitute teacher and sometimes maid. Despite a prolific output that included four novels, two folklore collections, an autobiography, and a wealth of short stories, essays, articles and plays, Hurston died penniless and alone in a welfare home on January 28, 1960; her body—dressed in a pink dressing gown and fuzzy slippers—was buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce.

It was an especially cruel fate because she'd once appealed to activist W.E.B. Du Bois to create "a cemetery for the illustrious Negro dead" to assure that they'd never be discarded. Her rejected proposal read in part: "Let no Negro celebrity, no matter what financial condition they might be in at death, lie in inconspicuous forgetfulness. We must assume the responsibility of their graves being known and honored."

This confident and rebellious creator's contribution to the Harlem Renaissance seemed certain to have doomed her to the realm of the forgotten. But in 1975, Alice Walker, who would go on to write the heralded novel The Color Purple, penned a legacy-shifting essay for Ms. magazine called "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston." The essay encouraged a new generation of readers to rediscover Hurston’s work. Their Eyes Were Watching God found a new life, and began popping up on school reading curriculums and earning reprintings in other languages, as did her other books. Mule Bone was finally published and staged in 1991. Historians scoured archives and uncovered a never-published manuscript of folklore Hurston had collected. Titled Every Tongue Got To Confess, it was published posthumously in 2001.

Not only were Hurston's works at long last given their due—so was she. In honor of the author who'd inspired her and countless others, Walker traveled to Florida to put a proper tombstone on Hurston's grave. It reads: "Zora Neale Hurston, A Genius of the South. Novelist, folklorist, anthropologist."

This story originally ran in 2016.

Kitty O'Neil, Trailblazing Speed Racer and Wonder Woman's Stunt Double

Kitty O’Neil could do it all. A stuntwoman, drag racer, and diver, the legendary daredevil's skills were once described by the Chicago Tribune as “full and partial engulfment in fire; swimming; diving; water skiing; scuba diving; horse falls, jumps, drags, and transfers; high falls into an air bag or water; car rolls; cannon-fired car driving; motorcycle racing; speed, drag, sail, and power boat handling; fight routines; gymnastics; snow skiing; jet skiing; sky diving; ice skating; golf; tennis; track and field; 10-speed bike racing; and hang gliding.”

During her lifetime, O’Neil set 22 speed records on both the land and sea—including the women’s land speed record of 512 mph, which remains unmatched to this day. Through it all, she battled casual sexism and ableism, as she was often not only the lone woman in the room, but the lone deaf person on the drag strip or movie set.

"It Wasn't Scary Enough for Me"

O’Neil was born on March 24, 1946, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her father, John, was an Air Force pilot and oil driller, while her mother, Patsy, was a homemaker. When she was just a few months old, O’Neil contracted mumps, measles, and smallpox, an onslaught of illness that damaged her nerves and caused her to lose her hearing. Patsy, who had packed her in ice during the worst of the fever, went back to school for speech pathology so she could teach her daughter how to read lips and form words. She placed the young girl’s hand on her throat as she spoke, allowing her to feel the vibrations of her vocal cords.

Feeling those sensations helped Kitty learn to talk, while the sensations associated with engines would teach her something else. At the age of 4, O’Neil convinced her father to let her ride atop the lawn mower in what would be a transformative experience. “I could feel the vibrations,” she told the Associated Press. “That’s what got me into racing. When I race, I feel the vibrations.”

But racing wasn’t her first thrill ride. As a teenager, O’Neil showed such an aptitude for diving that Patsy decided to move the family to Anaheim, California, where O’Neil could train with the two-time Olympic gold medalist Sammy Lee. She was on her way to the qualifying rounds for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when she broke her wrist, eliminating her from consideration. Soon after, she contracted spinal meningitis. Her doctors worried she wouldn’t walk again.

She recovered, but found she was no longer interested in diving. “I gave it up because it wasn’t scary enough for me,” she told the Chicago Tribune.

Motorcycle racing proved to be a better adrenaline rush, so she began entering competitions along the West Coast. It was at one of those races that she met another speedster named Ronald “Duffy” Hambleton, who offered his assistance after O’Neil crashed her bike, severing two fingers. Once she had gotten stitched up, the pair began a professional and romantic relationship. O’Neil moved onto a 40-acre ranch in Fillmore, California, with Hambleton and his two children from a previous relationship.

Hambleton would act as O’Neil’s manager, often speaking to the press for her after stunts or record attempts. However, O’Neil later alleged that he stole money from her and physically abused her during their partnership. In 1988, a Star Tribune reporter would describe O’Neil’s scrapbooks as containing a photo of Hambleton with his face scratched out; she had also written “not true” in the margins of newspaper clippings touting his profound impact on her success.

The Need for Speed

O’Neil wanted to go fast and she didn’t care how. So she expanded her scope beyond motorcycles, setting a new women’s water skiing record in 1970 with a speed of 104.85 mph. Her national breakout arrived six years later, when she drove a skinny three-wheel rocket car into the Alvord Desert. The hydrogen peroxide-powered vehicle was dubbed “The Motivator,” and it was the work of William Fredrick, a designer who normally created cars for movie and TV stunts. When O’Neil got behind the wheel of The Motivator, she quickly smashed the women’s land speed record. Her average speed was 512 mph, over 1.5 times faster than the previous 321 mph record held by Lee Breedlove since 1965.

She believed she could beat the men’s record of 631.4 mph, too, which should’ve been great news for her entire team. Fredrick and his corporate sponsors were gunning for a new record, and O'Neil had already reportedly hit a maximum speed of 618 mph in her initial run. But before she could take The Motivator for a second spin, she was ordered out of the car.

As O’Neil would discover, she had only been contracted to beat the women’s record. Marvin Glass & Associates, the toy company that owned the rights to the vehicle, wanted Hollywood stuntman Hal Needham to break the men’s record. The company claimed it was purely a business decision, as they had a Needham action figure in the works. But according to Hambleton, the company reps had said it would be “unbecoming and degrading for a woman to set a land speed record.”

“It really hurts,” O’Neil told UPI reporters as she choked back tears. “I wanted to do it again. I had a good feeling.” She earned the immediate support of the men’s record holder, Gary Gabelich, who called the whole incident “ridiculous” and “kind of silly.” She and Hambleton tried to sue for her right to another attempt, but she wouldn’t get a second ride in The Motivator. Needham wouldn’t break the record, either, as a storm dampened his chances. Not that he was especially polite about it.

“Hell, you’re not talking about sports when you’re talking about land speed records,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “It doesn’t take any God-given talent … even a good, smart chimpanzee could probably do it. Probably better—because he wouldn’t be worried about dying.”

As the messy legal battle dragged on, O’Neil focused on her budding career in stunt work. According to The New York Times, she completed her first stunt in March of 1976, when she zipped up a flame-resistant Nomex suit and let someone set her on fire. For her second job, she rolled a car, which was practically a personal hobby. (She liked to tell people she rolled her mother’s car when she was 16, the day she got her driver’s license.) O’Neil eventually became Lynda Carter’s stunt double on Wonder Woman, where she famously leapt 127 feet off a hotel roof onto an air bag below. “If I hadn’t hit the center of the bag, I probably would have been killed,” she told The Washington Post in 1979.

Her work earned her a place in Stunts Unlimited, the selective trade group that had, until that point, only admitted men. O’Neil continued racking up credits with gigs on The Bionic Woman, Smokey and the Bandit II, and The Blues Brothers. Although few stunt doubles achieve name recognition, O’Neil was a media darling who inspired her own 1979 TV movie starring Stockard Channing and a Barbie in her trademark yellow jumpsuit.

A Pioneer's Legacy

But by 1982, feeling burned out after watching the toll the work had taken on colleagues, O'Neil decided she was finished. She retired from the business at the age of 36, packing up and leaving Los Angeles entirely. She wound up in Minneapolis and then in Eureka, South Dakota, a town with a population of fewer than 1000 people. She would live out the rest of her days there, eventually dying of pneumonia in 2018 at the age of 72.

O’Neil lived her life as a never-ending challenge—to go faster, jump higher, do better. She always said that her lack of hearing helped her concentrate, eliminating any fear she might’ve felt over the prospect of breaking the sound barrier, let alone self-immolation.

“When I was 18, I was told I couldn’t get a job because I was deaf,” she told a group of deaf students at the Holy Trinity School in Chicago. “But I said someday I’m going to be famous in sports, to show them I can do anything.”

O’Neil did exactly that. Over her the course of perilous career, she carved out a name for herself in a space that was often openly hostile towards her, setting records and making it impossible for anyone who doubted her to catch up.

Bessie Coleman, the Black Cherokee Female Pilot Who Made Aviation History

A Determined Beginning

Dreams of Flight—and France

The First Black Aviatrix


Colloquium with Sinclair Bell: 'Race in the Roman Empire: Black Africans as Subjects and Objects in Imperial Visual Culture'

Wednesday, October 23, 2019, 12:00pm

Sinclair Bell, Associate Professor of Art History, Northern Illinois University

Sinclair Bell studied Classical Archaeology at the University of Oxford, the University of Cologne, and the University of Edinburgh, from which he received his Ph.D. in Classics in 2004. He is presently an Associate Professor of Art History at Northern Illinois University, where he teaches courses in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art and archaeology. His research focuses on the Etruscans, sport and spectacle in the Roman Empire, and freedmen and foreigners in the Roman world. He is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and reviews on the art and archaeology of Etruscan and Roman Italy. He is also the Editor of the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, and has co-edited 12 books, including Free at Last! The Impact of Freed Slaves on the Roman Empire (London 2012).

Visual culture is a powerful mechanism for apprehending a society’s ideas about their perceived physical and ethnic differences from others. This book project investigates how artists and their patrons conceptualized ethnic difference in the Roman empire (c. 100 BCE-200 CE). In particular, it seeks to understand how black Africans’ social roles and status in Roman society and their perception by Romans were communicated through imperial visual culture, both large (portrait and relief sculptures) and small-scale (figurines, amulets, household artifacts such as perfume vessels) works.

Race and Representation in the Roman Empire: Black Africans in Imperial Visual Culture has three aims: first, it investigates the full range of image types and viewing contexts (where known) in order to build up a comprehensive archaeological taxonomy of the extant evidence; second, it reconciles visual depictions with other sources of available evidence (e.g., literary sources, graffiti, funerary inscriptions) in order to gauge black Africans’ presence and perception within Roman society; and third, it draws upon the critical axioms of contemporary theory, especially post-colonialism and critical race studies, in order to interrogate Roman systems of knowledge as part of the “history of perceptions of human difference” (D. McCoskey, Race: Antiquity and Its Legacy [Oxford 2006] 252).

ORGANIZER: Hutchins Center


Open and Collaborative
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Meaning of marmotera

Danilo Enrique Noreña Benítez

It is a way of calling a cap, dike, dam or stopper usually of branches and leaves or sometimes of bundles with sand, which are used to contain and derive the irrigation waters in a channel.

Daniel Lozano Torreblanca

Stopper, or dam, which is caused by the clogging of branches, dry leaves anything that hinders the water channel, by a river, Rambla, especially is more used in irrigation ditches because it is very casual to find this problem by pouring water PO R this, causing overflow by the tamponade of the Marmotera.


Devotion is … Flower Market, Dadar

Dadar Flower Market under the bridge by the Dadar Railway Station is one of my favorite places to visit in #Mumbai. It is verily a street photographer’s paradise. Stall owners are super nice, and the flowers are fresh heaped, fragrant and colorful. Loads of #Champae #plumeria (?) delicately woven, melt even the stingiest of heart. I surprised M’s family with a champae stringer.

Entire families of flower weavers live under this bridge. Many generations eat, sleep and weave here.

I love the symbolism in this pic.

What adorns the head of the greatest of Gods is woven on the dusty feet of the street women. She toils away her entire life, but knows deep down that her work is her most cherished offering.

She needn’t climb any mountains, needn’t enter any temple, she needn’t offer any prayers; her work is her most heartfelt and greatest offering. This is Bhakti, and not what cheap, two-bit, fame seeking activists peddle.

Thank you.

Dev barae karo.

#Bazaar #FlowerMarket #BestofMumbai #IncredibleIndia

#Devotion #Bhakti

Meaning of Puja

What is a Puja?

I generally translate puja to mean a devotional service. But based on a query in my previous post, Pratik provided a beautiful and succinct explanation. Considering no single word or phrase comes even close to incorporating this meaning, I recommend not translating it, but using the word puja as is, in the english language. Interestingly, this meaning is not unique to Hinduism (or Sanatana Dharma) and applies to all religious beliefs.

Pratik writes:

Pu comes from the word Poorna in Sanskrit meaning complete, Ja comes from Aja meaning born. So Puja is that which is born out of completeness or fullness.

It signifies that you feel complete and happy, and you are grateful to the Divine for bestowing that completeness in life. In fact the offering that we give symbolizes all the good things bestowed upon us by the Divine. It (is) like we are imitating the Divine in gratitude.

Beautiful, no?

One of his smallest, yet one of his best!

The heart can think of no devotion
Greater than being shore to the ocean —
Holding the curve of one position,
Counting an endless repetition

~Robert Frost

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Asset Division in Divorce

When couples divorce, their primary focus when they divide up their assets is generally on property, vehicles, bank accounts, retirement and pension plans, investments and perhaps valuables such as art, antiques and jewelry.

In many divorces, there are a number of assets that may get overlooked. It's essential to provide your attorney with a list of every asset you have, both separately and together. Some marital assets may have more value than you realize. It's cricial to determine their value so that the two of you can negotiate a fair division or determine that one spouse or the other should have them.

Club Memberships

If the membership is something that only one of you used, for the most part, you may decide to let your spouse have it. However, if initiation fees and dues were paid for with marital assets, the membership is a divisible asset.

Memorabilia and Collections

Art and wine collections can be valuable, of course. However, so can coin, stamp, comic and rare book collections and other memorabilia. You may have zero interest in your spouse's collection of antique pocket watches or sports memorabilia. However, if it has value, it's worth noting as part of your assets. A good way to determine whether a collection is valuable is to look at whether it's covered under your homeowner's insurance policy.

Intellectual Property Rights

If your spouse has acquired a patent, trademark, copyright or royalty rights, that should be addressed. Even if it hasn't paid off, you never know what could happen in the future. It's better to let your attorney know about it so that it can be determined whether you're entitled to a share of the earnings.

Cemetery Plots and Other Resting Places

Chances are, you no longer want to spend eternity next to your ex (and vice versa). However, if the two of you have purchased burial plots, mausoleum crypts or the like, they have value. Generally, one person sells his or her share to the other one.

These are just a few of the assets that many people neglect to consider during a divorce. Others include timeshares, air miles and gifts they exchanged during the marriage. Even if you don't mind giving up the physical assets, you shouldn't ignore the monetary value they could have. It's less complicated to determine the disposition of all of your assets with the support of your family law attorney during the divorce than to wrangle with each other later about them.


The only vitamins I take

PhotoGrid_1397047738714Hello my dears!
You know I love to eat healthy food, I think it’s the best thing you can do to your body. The best way to get all the nutrients is to eat as natural as possible, without processed foods and chemicals. Sometimes even if we eat all the good things we still need a little boost, and this is the time when vitamins and supplements come in our help. The only vitamins I take are the cod liver oil soft capsules which are a high quality source of Omega 3 and its active fatty acids
Another great supplement is the green tea extract which is a highly effective antioxidant that has been used in Chinese herbal medicine for thousands of years
And some multivitamin for more energy!
These all are from the company, check them out they are very effective and high quality products.

Have a beautiful day!

7 things that slow down your metabolism

sittingAccording to the dictionary, metabolism is a chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that is necessary for the maintenance of life.

We all know people who can eat all day and not gain a single pound. These people have good — or fast — metabolisms. Then there are the people that have one unhealthy meal and have to run for a week straight to burn it all off. These are people that tend to have a slower metabolic rate.

The faster your metabolism, the more calories you burn. And just like there are ways to speed it up—by working out, for instance—certain habits can also slow it down.

Metabolic rate is also affected by several factors including age, weight, and genetics.

If losing weight is your goal, avoid these metabolism-slowing mistakes:

1. Eating too late in the morning

Skipping breakfast is one of the worst things you can do for weight loss since it causes your metabolism to slow down. When you don’t eat, the brain sends a message to the rest of the body to conserve energy, signaling it to hold onto the stored fat that you’re trying to get rid of. Eating within an hour of waking sparks the metabolic process called thermo genesis that turns the food you eat into energy. So choose a high-protein breakfast. Make sure to eat throughout the day to maintain blood sugar levels since any drops can cause the body to burn muscle for fuel.

2. Not eating enough

It is important to snack often and never miss a main meal. As stated before, getting your body in a proper eating schedule is critical for maintaining a healthy metabolism. Also, when you skip out on meals, your body puts itself into “starvation mode”, which slows your metabolic rate to conserve any of the energy it has. This is why people who try to lose weight by not eating don’t have very much success.

3. Not exercising

Research shows that you continue burning calories up to 24 hours after working out, and studies also show that morning exercises burn more calories than those who work out during other times of the day. If you’re planning on exercising anyway, for maximum calorie burn, your best bet is to get it done in the a.m. Include high intensity cardio intervals

4. Sitting Too Long

It takes only 20 minutes in any fixed position to inhibit your metabolism, according to Carrie Schmitz, an ergonomic research manager. A new study has discovered that sitting for long periods increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease and death regardless of physical activity.

5. Dehydration

All of your body’s cellular processes, including metabolism, depend on water. If you’re dehydrated, you could burn up to 2 percent fewer calories, according to researchers.

6. A Weird Eating Schedule

Researchers suspect that eating at the same times every day trains the body to burn more calories between meals. So eat frequent, consistently sized meals.

7. Not getting enough sleep

People who sleep less move less the next day, which means they burn fewer calories. Sleep deprivation actually reduces the amount of energy your body uses at rest. Stay away from alcohol, fatty foods, coffee and chocolate at least 2 hours before bedtime.

So here are 7 things that you should avoid, if you want to loose weight, or if you just want to maintain your healthy weight.

Everybody can fall out of the wagon once or twice, by not sleeping enough or, sitting to much at the office because of work. So just try to compensate it, if you are sitting all day, you really need to work out after the office hours. I really think I am blessed with a great metabolism, I can eat a lot 🙂 BUT I also work out 5 times a week, and I try to eat healthy!

 Have a nice day my dears! :*

My favourite breakfast – healthy oatmeal

oats finish_1Hello everybody!

I just made the most good looking and tasty breakfast in weeks!

I started to eat this kind of breakfast almost every day. It tastes so good, you can make it every day with different flavours, fruits or nuts. If I eat this first thing in the morning, it keeps me full for 2-3 hours, which is a lot for me 🙂

So here are the ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk, but you can use any other type of milk
  • 1 banana
  • 1 spoon or more cocoa powder
  • 2 spoon of walnuts
  • 1/4 spoon vanilla extract (optional)
  • some goji berries and shredded coconut on top
Combine all ingredients in a blender on a slow speed and put in a glass. You can layer it with any kind of fruits like bananas or berries or put some cinnamon and dried fruits, but for me it was perfect like this!
You can prepare it in 5 minutes in the morning, or if you really don’t have 5 minutes in the morning, than prepare it in the evening and store it in the fridge 🙂
Have a great day guys! :*

Benefits of eating yogurt

yogurt finalHey everybody!

Did you know that yogurt it makes the list of one of the healthiest foods to eat? It’s important to note that the KIND of yogurt makes all the difference (keep reading below to find out what you should look for).

Here are 3 Benefits of Eating Yogurt:

1)      Yogurt contains probiotics (“good” bacteria also know as live active cultures) that help create a healthy environment which promotes digestion, increases immunity, fights against Candida (“bad” bacteria) overgrowth, and strengthens the immune system.

2)      Yogurt increases your immunity and protects against disease. A recent study found that daily yogurt consumption had a stimulating effect on cellular immunity in healthy young women. Yogurt helps maintain good gut flora and helps prevent all kinds of diseases, especially chronic degenerative ones, by controlling inflammation and increasing antibodies and anticancer cells.

3)      Yogurt is a great source of protein, calcium, potassium, B vitamins, and selenium. Those who are lactose intolerant can often enjoy yogurt with no problems due to the live cultures present in yogurt which break down lactose. Now, you’re probably wondering what kind of yogurt you should buy… Well, these benefits only apply to yogurts with the “Live and Active Cultures” (LAC) seal! This means the yogurt contains at least 100 million cultures per gram of yogurt at the time of manufacture and after pasteurization. Also, look for PLAIN yogurt, which has only two ingredients: live cultures and milk (whole, low-fat, or skim). The longer the list of ingredients, the less nutritional value it has (Source: The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth, Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS). As for the type (Bulgarian, Greek, Lassi, Kefir, Goat, Sheep) of yogurt, it really depends on your own preference so choose accordingly based on the guidelines above.

Now that you know what to look for, go out there and buy some yogurt! 🙂

Have a great day! See you tomorrow 🙂

Best post workout snack/food ideas

Hey everybody!

Have a wonderful day!  :*

Tips to get in shape for summer

Fotor0603172115Summer beach season is almost here, so whether you want to lose some weight or simply tone up, getting your body beach-ready will take some work and dedication. This article will teach you how to get in shape without starving or torturing yourself.

Here are 6 healthy ways to get and stay in shape this summer with minimal effort and maximum health benefit.

1. Eat right

Studies have shown around 80% of any fitness goal depends on your diet, be it weight loss, muscular development or training for an event. Eating a good balance of clean carbohydrates, fresh protein and healthy fats will give you the energy to aid your fitness challenge and show results quickly.Eat at least five meals a day, but not five huge meals a day. Try to eat five small balanced meals. Digestion burns calories, and you are less inclined to overeat if you are not starving when it’s time to eat.

2. Avoid sitting for longer than 30 minutes at a time

If you are working in an office, just stand up and do some stretching every 30 minutes. People who sit in a desk for hours are at risk for chronic back pain. You burn 33 percent more calories when standing, and frequent walking around will help to stretch your muscles and improve your posture.

3. Keep Hydrated

Drink more water. Not only is it good for you, but it will also keep you feeling full without the calories. Not only will it keep you full, but it will also help you flush toxins out of your body. You should carry a bottle of water with you and drink often.

A little tip how to calculate how much water you body needs: Body weight KG x 0.03 = MINIMUM DAILY WATER INTAKE

4. Hit the stairs

Instead of taking the elevator, you can burn calories by taking the stairs up and down whenever you have the chance. You will burn a lot of calories just by bypassing the elevator. Give it a shot.

5. Regular Exercise

Working out three to four times per week is a great place to start, once you have your routine, stick to it and you will see the benefits. You’ll notice increased energy levels and your body will begin to adapt. That fitness goal will become ever closer.

6. Relaxing and Sleep

When the body is relaxing it is able to repair, after efforts of exercise, it will also relax the mind enabling you to mentally focus. Being mentally focused is almost as important as the exercise itself. The average person needs 7 – 8 hours of sleep a night! Some need a little more and some can get by on a little less. A key step to maintaining a healthy weight is also getting enough sleep

By following these simple steps, you will be able to burn more calories and tighten up your body for summer. Although these tips may seem self evident, many people do not realize how effective they are.

Follow them and you will be ready for this summer! 🙂

Top 10 Super foods

Here is the list:

2. Leafy green vegetables

3. Whole grains/Oats

4. Avocado

5. Olive oil

6. Eggs

7. Lentils/Beans/Chick Peas

8. Bananas

9. Nuts/ (Brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds)

10.  Green tea


Prodotti della ricerca

Titolo: Sulfur Dioxide Absorption in a Bubbling Reactor with Suspensions of Bayer Red Mud
Data di pubblicazione: 2007
Abstract: In this work, we studied the SO2 absorption with suspensions of Bayer red mud (the solid residue of the Bayer process for alumina production from bauxite) using a laboratory-scale bubbling reactor with continuous feed of both gas and liquid phases. A few preliminary tests were carried out in order to calculate the physical mass transfer coefficients in both the gas and liquid sides. Then, the ability of red mud suspensions for sulfur dioxide absorption was studied at several different flow rates of both the liquid and gas streams. The absorption rate was measured for four different suspension concentrations. The absorption phenomena were modeled using the film theory and assuming two different fluid dynamics for the gas phase. The liquid-side mass transfer coefficient and the enhancement factor for chemical absorption were calculated from the experimental results using the model.
Tipologia:1.1 Articolo in rivista

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Sensational!!! After reading this, you will agree that Mahabharata did happen; Which are the present Indian cities that are mentioned in Mahabharata?

Indian epics have been depicted as ‘mythologies’ where as in reality they are part of our ‘history’. A story which can be backed by archaeological and physical evidences should come under the ambit of history. Like ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’ we can identify ancient cities mentioned in Mahabharata in states across the country even today. Here we bring to you such ancient places that have been in existence from the times of the great epic.

  1. Banganga: is the place where Pitamaha Bhishma was laid on a bed of arrows and Arjun shot an arrow, as requested by Pitamaha, such that the waters of Ganga directly quenched Pitamaha’s thirst.
  2. Kurukshetra: This is the site of the epic battle located 40 kms east of Ambala city. Brahma Sarovar (lake) lies here in which Shri Krishna is said to have bathed before the commencement of the war.
  3. Hastinapur: The capital city of the Kuru dynasty lies in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh. During ancient times this city had a grandeur of its own. It has stood witness to several pleasant and unpleasant events that led to the Mahabharata war.
  4. Varnavat: Lying close to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, this is the city where Pandavas along with their mother Kunti had been sent by Duryodhan and Shakuni on a pleasure trip. The actual aim of both Duryodhan and his uncle was to get rid of all six of them by burning them alive in the wax castle.
  5. Panchal Pradesh: The kingdom of Panchal was located on both sides of River Chamba between the Himalayas and Ganga. The place gets its name from the legend where the kind of Panchal said that his five sons (Panch) were enough to deal with the army of Ayodhya, when the latter had attacked the former. Princess Draupadi was also known as Panchali because she belonged to Panchal.
  6. Gandhar: is situated on the western bank of River Sindhu in present day Sindh Pradesh, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Dhritarashtra’s wife and Duryodhan’s mother Gandhari hailed from this kingdom. The treachery and vengeance seeking nature of her brother Shakuni, crown prince of Gandhar, was one of the reasons for the terrible war that almost led to the annihilation of Kuru dynasty.
  7. Takshashila: Renowned as a great centre of learning in later times. Takshashila was the capital of Gandhar during the Mahabharata era.
  8. Ujjanak: This was a city near Kashipur which is at present located in Nainital district of Himachal Pradesh. The city has the distinction of being the place where both Kauravas and Pandavas had been taught archery by Guru Dronacharya.
  9. Shivi Desh: Was a kingdom located on the northern border of India in present day South Punjab. The princess of this dynasty was married to Yudhistir and hence they fought on the side of Pandavas.
  10. Indraprastha: Designed by the celestial architect Vishwakarma, Indraprastha was built by Pandavas on what used to be a difficult terrain named Kandavprastha. The area south of present day Delhi is identified with the ancient city Indraprastha.
  11. Vrindavan: 10 kilometres from Mathura is the place where Shri Krishna performed his ‘leelas’ as a child. The temples of Banke Bihari and Radha Vallabh located here draw hoards of pilgrims every year.
  12. Gokul: The village where Shri Krishna and his brother Balaram spent their childhood lies on the banks of Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh.
  13. Barsana: This is the ancestral place of Radha, the divine love interest of Shri Krishna. Barsana is 21 kilometres away from Govardhan Mountain. The four hill tops of the Govardhan Parbat represent the four faces of Shri Brahma.
  14. Mathura: This is the birth place of Shri Krishna. When Kans, uncle of Shri Krishna, usurped the throne from his father King Ugrasen, he made his sister Devaki and brother in law Vasudev prisoners as well. It was in prison that Shri Krishna was born as the eighth child of the couple.
  15. Kashi, Uttar Pradesh: It is one of the most ancient living cities in the world and a very important centre of pilgrimage to Hindus. It was a renowned centre of learning and education. The princesses of Kashi, Ambika and Ambalika, were the mothers of Dhritarashtra and Pandu respectively.
  16. Ekchakranagari, Aarah, Bihar: This place served as a refuge to Pandavas and Kunti when they were in disguise after their escape from the Wax Palace at Varnavat. This place can be identified with Aarah in present day Bihar.
  17. Magadh, South Bihar: Present day Southern Bihar was known as Magadh during earlier times. This kingdom was ruled by Jarasandh, father in law of Kans. When Shri Krishna killed Kans, Jarasandh sought revenge for the same and kept attacking Mathura often. He was killed by Bhim in a duel.
  18. Pundru Desh, Bihar: Pundru Desh was a part of modern day Bihar ruled by King Paundrak. His inflated ego led him to challenge Shri Krishna to a fight in which he was killed.
  19. Pragjyotishpur, Guwahati, Assam: Situated close to Guwahati, Pragjyotishpur was the capital of the kingdom ruled by Narkasur. Narkasur is said to have kept 16000 girls captive who were freed by Shri Krishna after killing the former.

20: Manipur: The ancient city of Manipur was ruled by Chitravahan whose daughter Chitrangada was married to Arjun. Babruvahan, son of Chitrangada and Arjun, participated in the Rajasuya Yagna performed by the Pandavas.

  1. Sindu Desh: Sindhu Desh, ruled by Dhritarashtra’s son in law Jaydrath, is identified with the Sindh region that is now a part of Pakistan.
  2. Matsya Desh, North Rajasthan: The capital of this kingdom was Viraatnagari where the Pandavas and Draupadi spent the year of disguise (13th year) of their exile. Princess Uttara was married to Abhimanyu, Shri Krishna’s nephew and son of Arjun and Subhadra.
  3. Muchhkand Tirtha, Dhoulpur, Rajasthan: The hills here had a reputation of being perilous. Muchhkand dwelled in the caves here and his look would reduce one to ashes. When Shri Krishna was followed by Kaalyavan the former hid in the cave here. Kaalyavan mistook Muchhkand for Krishna and disturbed his sleep. As a result, Muchhkand burnt him to ashes.
  4. Patan, Mehsana, Gujarat: Patan in Mehsana district of Gujarat was a popular commercial city right from the Dwapar Yuga.
  5. Vardayini Dham, Rupalnagar: This place lies near Kalol in Gujarat and was known as Rupavati during those times. It was here that the Pandavas undertook a pooja to please Devi before going incognito. Since they were blessed by Bhagwati, the Devi was called Vardayini (one who grants boons) and the place was named Vardayini Dham.
  6. Avantika, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh: Ujjain was known as Avantika earlier. It is counted among the seven holy cities of Hindus. The ashram of Rishi Sandipani, Guru of Shri Krishna and Shri Balaram, was located here.
  7. Chedi, Madhya Pradesh: Chedi was ruled by Shri Krishna’s cousin Shishupal during the times of Mahabharata. Chedi lies between the rivers Ganga and Narmada.
  8. Vidarbha: Vidarbha was counted among one of the powerful kingdoms of those times. King Bhishmak was defeated by Sahadev when the former abducted the horse of the Pandavas.

29: Revatak: is a mountain lying close to Dwarka. It is alternatively known as Girnar. It is located near Junagadh.

30: Yayaatipur: About 78 kilometres from Cuttack lays Jajpur which can be identified Yayaatipur of ancient times. This is the place where Pandavas had offered oblations to their ancestors.

  1. Kekaya Pradesh: On the northern border of Jammu and Kashmir was the kingdom of Kekaya. The dynasty was renowned for valorous warriors and fought on the side of Kauravas in Kurukshetra.
  2. Madra Desh: Ruled by Shalya, uncle of the twins Nakul and Sahadev and brother of Madri (second wife of Pandu), the kingdom of Madra lay on the northern side of the Himalayas.
  3. Anga Desh: The region which was gifted to Karna by Duryodhan lies in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh today. Malini Nagari, capital of this region, is said to be a Shakti Peeth where the right hand of Devi Sati fell after being dismembered by Shri Vishnu.
  4. Naimisharanya: Is an important place of pilgrimage located on the banks of River Gomati. It finds mention not just in the Mahabharata but in the Puranas also. It was here that the Mahabharata was recited by Rishi Ugrashravas to the gathering of Rishis.
  5. Kaushambi: What is Allahabad today was the capital of Vatsa Desh during those times. They had sided with the Kauravas.
  6. Kamakhya: is a renowned Shakti Peeth that is 10 kilometres away from Guwahati in Assam. It is not just popular but also among one of the most powerful Shakti Peeths.
  7. Dwarka: This place in coastal Gujarat was constructed by the celestial architect Vishwakarma on the instructions of Shri Krishna. To avoid unnecessary war Shri Krishna moved with the entire clan to Dwarka when Jarasandh kept attacking Mathura repeatedly after Kans was killed. Dwarka continues to be an important pilgrimage centre to this day.
  8. Prabhas: The region on the west coast of India in the state of Gujarat, within which Bet Dwarka lies, is identified as Prabhas Kshetra. This place stood witness to the end of Yaduvanshis after they fought and slayed each other. When Shri Krishna left for his heavenly abode the entire region was swallowed by the sea.
  9. Shonitpur: is an important place of pilgrimage which has a temple dedicated to Shri Narsimha, an avatar of Shri Vishnu. It is a few kilometres away from the modern city of Itarsi in Madhya Pradesh.
  10. Indrakil: is identified with one of the mountains on the Himalayan range. It is significant because during their exile Arjun performed penance here to obtain the Pashupatastra from Lord Shiva.

The country’s rich history needs to be celebrated by letting people know of these ancient cities that continue to stand witness to some of the greatest events in human history. Much can be taught and learnt about our Puranas, Shastras and Itihasas if we form a Mahabharata and Ramayana circuit and encourage people to visit these sites so as to relive history.

Latha Iyer